Students and staff of Lawton Public Schools completed the second of three consecutive days of recording for OSAG (Oklahoma School Assurance Group) safety videos today at Central Middle School and street intersections adjacent to Shoemaker Education Center.

The district participated in the completion of such educational films in 2015 and welcomed Safety Source Production Company, of California, to its campus once more to observe and record several trainings this week. Those trainings included an active shooter exercise on Fort Sill, crossing guard and parking lot director training near Lawton High School and – on Friday – special education classroom setup and transportation services at Central Middle School.

More than 100 students and staff from LPS have taken part in some manner to create the videos.

“Our intention is to provide some of the cutting-edge training that we provide for our support employees, particularly in regard to crossing guard training and training for special education transitioning,” said Barbara Ellis, assistant superintendent of business services. “We don’t know of any other district that is doing this but we think we do it well, at least that’s our intention, and we wanted to share that information with other schools across the nation.”

The videos will be featured on the OSAG website – alongside other safety flicks about slips, trips, falls and other types work-related incidents – and made available for free to its members. They will also be made available to interested Safety Source Production Company clients.

“Lawton Public Schools volunteered to allow us to use their campus and facilities,” said Tina Wamsley, OSAG board secretary. “We have approximately 500 schools in Oklahoma, and are the largest provider of workers compensation to schools (in the state). We had approached other member districts to see if they were interested in allowing us on campus to film and they had concerns with liability exposure, so we are just really thankful Lawton has allowed us here for the second time.”

Todd Smoot, a safety consultant from Healthcare Safety Solutions, Inc., regarded the video project as a “monumental undertaking that has gone very smooth and simple” thanks to the efforts of Ellis, Communications Director Lynn Cordes and Superintendent Tom Deighan.

“I look at it from the perspective that we are all here for the students,” Smoot said. “My job might be safety and workers comp but my role is to try to make sure we keep the teaching staff and learners in the classroom doing what they do, and the support staff supporting those efforts. So if we have good safety procedures and safe methodologies and consistent training practices, we can deliver. Having strong commitment from upper management and leadership allows us to have a great starting point.”

The high quality videos produced by the Safety Source Production Company crew will engage audiences and apply to situations in all districts, despite their location or classroom sizes, Smoot said. They are expected to be released by November.